I think it's an only fitting race as my first Ironman was in Canada in Penticton and was a one loop swim, one loop bike and out and back run. It looks like Boulder is going to be the same. It's an old school Ironman. None of these two loops of anything.
I also have this feeling that Ironman Boulder is going to be the next big race to do. It only makes sense it's in the mecca of Ironman training. I don't think there is many pros that do not relocated to Boulder for a period of their training.
The big news is it's going to be the largest Ironman race with over 3000 participants. I guess that's what a one loop course can do. Mind you I think Roth is 4,000 or 5,000 participants. Mind you it's not an "official" Ironman brand, so this is the biggest Ironman branded race.
My time is starting to be taken up preparing to launch Salmon Social, my new venture. It's a social media app that I think has the potential to be as popular as twitter or facebook. The more I look at the competitors there is only 3 or 4 and all of them have raised between $2 million, 12.5 million and over $125 million respectively. They have a different bent as they are tracking and connecting friends from online media, we are trying to make new friendships.
This week I began in earnest so the training balance has been a little tricky. I'm glad I'm in taper stage. It's actually been nice training like a normal person. Take an hour run. Go for an hour swim. Do a 4 hour bike ride. Nothing to extreme.
I've been noticing I'm eating more carbs. Craving them. Could be a subliminal thing that my body knows it's needs to carb up for the race. Some of the carbs haven't been the most healthiest although I'm not sweating it.
After one day of carbo-loading on some ice cream cones and chips which was heavy in salt. I could feel the salt burning my eyes. I still managed to step on the scale at 199 lbs which means I really am 199 lbs. If I stopped training I'd probably drop to 195 lbs by the muscle loss alone.
Today I had a semi long bike ride, 113.5 km or 70.5 miles. Before I went I got enough motivation and energy to change my wheels. I went to my Zipps and tubulars and took off the standard rims that came with the bike and a heavy, think set of clinchers.
I was AMAZED at the difference and when I say AMAZED I'm serious. I'd often tell people that buying racing wheels was a waste of money. Why spend close to $2000 for wheels?
Today I realized why. I felt like I was riding on helium. Right out of leaving the driveway I had speed. I mean real speed. When I say real speed I mean anything over 30 kph / 18.6 mph average. That used to be by long bike speed. This year I think my longest bike ride was just barely 27 kph and most where in the 24 - 26 kph range. Pathetic times.
It just felt different today. I felt like I had power. That the wheels where actually like a bike seat adjustment that adjusted position to my legs and I had power.
To put it in perspective. I managed to do the entire ride and average 30.1 kph or 18.7 mph and yet 4 days earlier I did the exact same route and averaged 26.7 kph. In real time I finished the exact same course 30 minutes faster today than I did on Tuesday. That's real numbers. On an Ironman that would be close to an hour difference over 112 miles.
When I got home I wasn't feeling too bad. I was tired until I ate. A little sore until I moved around a bit. Going out for dinner and just hanging out helps the movement and the legs.
After the ride I was optimistic in I knew I had a possibility of a respectable ride. The sooner I finish the better in my books. The only concern I have is going out too hard and bonking. The difference between finishing in a non-bonk state versus a bonk state might be only 15 - 20 minutes slower. It's one of those thinks, it the slightly faster that will kill you and for what? A death march of a run?
There wasn't a lot of mental rest after the ride. Reid had sold his car to a young kid from Toronto and I realized one thing. Young kids who buy these converted street legal race cars are not reliable. They never give exact times. They never show up on time. They don't return calls. Many say they are coming to view the car and don't show up. Basically the norm is they are all full of shit.
The first kid that came and viewed the car after we reduced it to $2500 from $3700 bought it. We had to reduce it. A guy that was going to buy it had his mechanic check it out and it was a mess. We had our mechanic check it out and he said the same. It looks good, it has a ton of high performance stuff in it but it would be a money pit. Reid (and I ) learned an important lesson. Take it to our mechanic to get it checked out first. DOH....no kidding. It took us a near $2000 loss in only 3 weeks to learn that.
With that said I'm so glad to get rid of it. Especially as Monday Alice and I are driving to Boulder and won't be at home and you never know what could happen if paper work is not filled out properly.
The sad part for this kid is he got a car with very expensive high performance stuff cheap, yet he don't yet know it but in the end he's going to be paying a fortune for the repairs. I hope things don't break down early and him trying to get his money back.
He comes from Toronto and looks a little gang like and last think I need is the hood putting the heat down on the family. Nothing would make me more happy than for the saga of this car to end.
Even though we lost money in the end we will level out. We decided not to get Reid a car as we have 3 cars now and I rarely use my truck. With Reid not having to pay insurance on his car we save over $3000 per year. Yes, $3000 per year. The cost to insure a car in Toronto for a 17 year old male is not cheap.
The rest of my night was spent surfing the net, researching, then finalizing strategy. What's kind of cool about the app process is everything is falling into place from a timing standpoint. Although I'd like to have had it done sooner, the start to finish is only 150 days. Pretty remarkable when you think of it and it will be fully officially launched August 1st, ready to promote and the Ironman is Sunday August 3rd and that means I'm free to work extreme hours on the app and not have to worry about getting into Ironman shape.
I'm not as light as I want for the Ironman although I just may pull this out of the fire from a finish without major suffering. Tomorrow will be my last bigger day of training, then it will be taper and rest for the balance of the week during the drive.
Mod Bike - 3:45:53 / 113.5 km
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so you think by not training for IM, you'll weigh less because you'll have less muscle?
ReplyDeleteCare to bet what you'll weigh more in 3 months ?
Yes. Exactly. And I'm going to also drink Coke because of all the acid it will eat the fat away and smoke because it will coat my lungs with tar so the cancer won't get in. Thinking outside the box.
ReplyDeleteYou are A LOT FATTER than I was at IRONMAN. YOUR FAT....fatty fats!
ReplyDelete